Porsche prepares a Cayenne Coupe to challenge GLE and X6

In January 2017, spy shooters caught something in the snow that looked like a Cayenne Coupe. The auto media couldn't reach consensus, some outlets instead pegging the black apparition as a heavily modified mule for the Taycan (ex-Mission E). By September of 2017, Porsche boss Oliver Blume confessed the company had ideas about a sleeker Cayenne, but remained undecided. At the same time, design chief Michael Mauer said his team had already worked up production possibilities. Autocar reports the decision is in: a four-door 'coupe' Cayenne will arrive by the end of 2019.

Autocar cites "engineering sources close to the German car maker," which sounds like loose-lipped suppliers sinking Stuttgart ships. But hey, they would know. The raked Cayenne would target the Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe and BMW X6, and would perhaps instigate a cross-shopped sibling rivalry with the brand new Audi Q8. A new front bumper, liftback tailgate, and taillights similar to the Porsche Panamera will differentiate the Cayenne coupe from its more upright brother.

Pitched as a performance option - these are the sports cars of the SUV segment - Autocar says the engine menu would skip the 3.0-liter turbocharged V6, and be limited to the 2.9-liter twin-turbo V6 with 440 horsepower, and the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 with 550 hp. A performance hyrbid option wouldn't be out of place either, eventually.

The BMW X6 has sold roughly 20,000 units per year over the past three years in the U.S. and Europe, equaling roughly 60 to 80 percent of Cayenne sales in the two markets over the same period. Porsche, not known to let a profitable variant slip by, has to be paying attention. A fraction of those X6 numbers will pad Porsche's pocketbook, and the Volkswagen Group will be happy to make more money off the MLB platform that already supports the Audi Q7 and Q8, Bentley Bentayga, Lamborghini Urus, Cayenne, and Volkswagen Touareg.